Where The Newspaper Stands

September 19, 2003

NIKE PARK

REMEMBER COLD WAR, BUT DON'T IMPEDE RECREATION

It wasn't a war, and yet it was. A "long twilight struggle," John F. Kennedy called the Cold War. In the early days of that 41/2-decade face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union, one of America's last lines of defense were the Nike missile bases scattered around the country, poised to shoot down any Soviet bombers that might appear above our shores. Blessedly, they never had to.

The Nike base that sat in Isle of Wight County is now Carrollton Nike Park, a lovely recreational area with ballfields, basketball and tennis courts, picnic areas and more. The old missile base's buildings still stand, pressed into service as a recreation hall, senior citizen center and offices. County Parks and Recreation Director Alan Nogiec says they're antiquated and hard to maintain, and he wants them knocked down and replaced with new and better buildings.

That disturbs local veterans and history buffs, who have persuaded the county Board of Supervisors to seek state and national designation as historic sites for the park and its Cold War-era structures.

To be sure, the Cold War is history worth remembering. And there's no denying the nostalgia that today's aging vets may feel about some of the buildings in which they served in their youth.

Yet Nogeic is right. The county's prime responsibility is to its citizens of today, providing them with adequate recreational facilities. With Isle of Wight's population booming, the recreation department has more people to serve and a greater challenge in finding affordable new park land. It must get maximum use out of the parks it has, which can be done without forgetting the history.

Historic designation won't require the nondescript old cinderblock buildings to be preserved, and they shouldn't be. But they and the underground missile emplacements they served can be memorialized.

Put up plaques and interpretive markers at the missiles' sites to tell their story. Perhaps one of the smaller old buildings can be kept for use as a mini-museum of the park's past, provided it can be done without getting in the way of park improvements.

Then county residents of the future can get the maximum enjoyment from Carrollton Nike Park - while also learning how it once helped defend America.